This enthusiastic tribute to the modern pop idol is sure to satisfy Swifties.
Taylor Swift’s passion awakens when she picks up her first guitar as a child in Pennsylvania.
When she learns that her favorite country music stars got their start in Nashville, Taylor takes a spring break trip to Tennessee, personally delivering CDs of her original music to record label offices. At home, she jumps at any chance to perform her favorite country hits, but her real joy comes from songwriting. After she moves to Nashville as a teen, a music executive sees her perform and gives her the opportunity to record her debut album. Though Taylor’s star is rising, her relationship with her mother keeps her grounded, and she takes time to treat her fans to special parties and surprises. The text is peppered with song references, cleverly mirroring the easter eggs that Taylor famously hides for fans. This gushing biography briefly references (and perhaps overstates) Taylor’s efforts to encourage voter registration and speak against racial injustice (“She’s a trailblazer!”) but fails to mention a yearslong battle to own the rights to her master recordings and help protect young artists entering the industry. Cheerful, painterly illustrations depict a smiling Taylor from childhood to the present, with careful considerations of hairstyles and clothing choices that align with the eras of her life. Some background characters represent a variety of skin tones and body shapes.
This enthusiastic tribute to the modern pop idol is sure to satisfy Swifties. (Picture-book biography. 5-9)Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9780593566718
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Golden Books/Random
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2024
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses.
An NBA star pays tribute to the influence of his grandfather.
In the same vein as his Long Shot (2009), illustrated by Frank Morrison, this latest from Paul prioritizes values and character: “My granddad Papa Chilly had dreams that came true,” he writes, “so maybe if I listen and watch him, / mine will too.” So it is that the wide-eyed Black child in the simply drawn illustrations rises early to get to the playground hoops before anyone else, watches his elder working hard and respecting others, hears him cheering along with the rest of the family from the stands during games, and recalls in a prose afterword that his grandfather wasn’t one to lecture but taught by example. Paul mentions in both the text and the backmatter that Papa Chilly was the first African American to own a service station in North Carolina (his presumed dream) but not that he was killed in a robbery, which has the effect of keeping the overall tone positive and the instructional content one-dimensional. Figures in the pictures are mostly dark-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81003-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
An inspiring introduction to the young Nobel Peace Prize winner and a useful conversation starter.
The latest of many picture books about the young heroine from Pakistan, this one is narrated by Malala herself, with a frame that is accessible to young readers.
Malala introduces her story using a television show she used to watch about a boy with a magic pencil that he used to get himself and his friends out of trouble. Readers can easily follow Malala through her own discovery of troubles in her beloved home village, such as other children not attending school and soldiers taking over the village. Watercolor-and-ink illustrations give a strong sense of setting, while gold ink designs overlay Malala’s hopes onto her often dreary reality. The story makes clear Malala’s motivations for taking up the pen to tell the world about the hardships in her village and only alludes to the attempt on her life, with a black page (“the dangerous men tried to silence me. / But they failed”) and a hospital bracelet on her wrist the only hints of the harm that came to her. Crowds with signs join her call before she is shown giving her famous speech before the United Nations. Toward the end of the book, adult readers may need to help children understand Malala’s “work,” but the message of holding fast to courage and working together is powerful and clear.
An inspiring introduction to the young Nobel Peace Prize winner and a useful conversation starter. (Picture book/memoir. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-316-31957-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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